The Hindu : Elders reject bill on POTO

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 22, 2002

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Elders reject bill on POTO

By Our New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI MARCH 21. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) suffered a major embarrassment when the controversial Bill on the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance was struck down decisively by the Rajya Sabha late tonight. As many as 113 members voted in favour of the statutory resolution disapproving the Bill, moved by Kapil Sibal of the Congress, while 98 opposed it. Out of 239 members, 211 were present during the voting.

The Government now plans to convene a special joint session of both the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, March 26, in an attempt to propel the Ordinance into the statute books. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan, whose efforts at mustering a majority for the Government collapsed, was stoic in defeat. "We are not surprised but the first thing we will do tomorrow morning is to write to the President requesting him to convene a joint session of Parliament.''

The Union Home Minister, L. K. Advani, maintained that the Government was unfazed by the result and was determined to take the issue through its ``logical course.'' Earlier, replying to the marathon eight-hour debate, Mr. Advani said the defeat of the Bill would send wrong signals to those attempting to destroy the fabric of the nation. In his reply and during his intervention while introducing the legislation earlier in the day, Mr. Advani pointed out that the Bill had incorporated all the safeguards pointed out by the Supreme Court while scrutinising the earlier law — Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. He regretted that despite supporting similar laws in Maharashtra and Karnataka, the Congress was opposing it at the Centre. "I expected opposition from the Left, but my assessment of how the Congress would respond was wrong.''

Mr. Advani felt the proposed legislation would lead to a greater number of convictions against the abysmal two per cent achieved under TADA. The overall objective of the Bill was to create a secure environment. Unlike TADA, the bail provisions were simpler under POTO, he said.

The crucial debate in the Rajya Sabha, which defined the country's priorities in the civil liberties arena, revealed the sharp divide between the Treasury and the Opposition benches. But for the common stand taken by the political rivals, DMK and AIADMK, the debate ran on expected lines. The only surprise was the abstention by the three members of the National Conference (NC) and the solitary Loktantric Congress Party representative. Both the parties are allies of the Vajpayee Government. The BSP, perceived to be coming closer to the BJP, also stayed away as it had done in the Lok Sabha. The rebel Akali Dal MP, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, criticised similar laws enacted in the past since he was a victim of each one of them and felt the new law would be no different. He walked out of the House in protest.

The bid to push through the legislation was flayed by the Congress, the Left parties, the Tamil Maanila Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, which were joined by the nominated members, Kuldip Nayar, Shabana Azmi and Fali S. Nariman.

In contrast, the ruling BJP received the support of the Telugu Desam and the Shiv Sena — besides the two Dravidian parties — which felt a distinctive law to clamp down on terrorism was the need of the hour. Their stand was upheld by Cho Ramaswamy, a nominated member.

The proceedings opened with Mr. Sibal's eloquent and impassioned address in which he said while the Government and its fellow travellers had chosen "their way, we have chosen ours.'' He expressed the fear that the proposed law would be used for whipping up jingoism. In a speech heard with rapt attention, he said the Opposition had suggested a "middle way'' of referring the Bill to a Select Committee, but there was no endeavour by the Government to impart a "humane face" to the Ordinance. "While you want to sacrifice civil liberties in the national interest, we seek to combat a law which will perpetuate terrorism,'' he said.

Raising several substantive objections to the proposed law, which included selectivity in banning organisations and nebulousness in defining terrorists and terrorist organisations, he said these loopholes "shows your mindset which is to divide the polity of the country.''

Intervening in the discussion, the Rural Development Minister, Venkaiah Naidu, said elements across the border, which were aiding and abetting terrorism, would be most happy if POTO was defeated. In his half-an-hour intervention, often marked by disruptions from the Opposition benches, he said the provision should not be opposed for the sake of opposition. The country was passing through an extraordinary phase and a law like POTO was needed to tackle such a situation. The Government was incurring heavy expenses on fighting cross-border terrorism, he said, and favoured strong action through legislative measures to combat terrorism.

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